José de San Martín

José de San Martín (25 February 1778-17 August 1850) was the first President of Peru and an Argentine independence fighter. Leading the struggle for Argentina's independence against Spain during the South American Wars of Liberation, José de San Martín later extended his operations to Chile and Peru, and was "Protector of Peru" from 1821 to 1822. He went into private life after a private conversation with Simon Bolivar and left for Europe after his wife's death in 1823. He died in Boulougne-sur-Mer, France, in 1850.

Biography
Born in Argentina, San Martín was raised in Spain and served as an army officer, fighting the French in the Peninsular War. Returning to South America in 1812, he aided Argentinian officers asserting independence against Spanish royalists. He founded a regiment of mounted grenadiers that won a skirmish at San Lorenzo in 1813 and repulsed a royalist invasion in northern Argentina the following year. In January 1817, with exiled Chilean rebel Bernardo O'Higgins, he marched a 5,000-strong army over the high Andes into Chile to defeat the royalists at Chacabuco. Chilean independence was confirmed by a subsequent victory at Maipu. San Martín went on to take control of Peru in 1821, but had withdrawn to private life within a year.